User:BengaliHindu/Cattle smuggling to Bangladesh

The 4,096 Km long Bangladesh-India border is a partly fenced, porous, riverine and poorly manned international border. In Bangladesh, which is predominantly Muslim, there is high demand for beef which is not met by domestic means. In India, where over 80% of the population is Hindu, the consumption of beef is less compared to Bangladesh. Hindus revere cow as mother and killing of cow or consumption of beef is considered a sinful act.

Cow slaughter is either prohibited or restricted in most of the Indian states. India does not export cattle and any cross border cattle trade between India and its neighbouring countries are illegal. However, due to the high demand for beef is Bangladesh, cattle is illegally smuggled from India to Bangladesh. The BSF estimates the cattle smuggling to be a Rs. 5,000 crore industry. Bangladesh officially denies any smuggling from cattle from India, and terms it as cattle trade.

Cattle smugglers from Bangladesh buy the cattle from their Indian agents, who procure the cattle from faraway states like Haryana and Rajasthan. The smugglers bribe the Indian police, customs and the BSF and transport the cattle into Bangladesh. The cattle smugglers, most of whom are Bangladeshis and sometimes Pakistanis, regularly enter illegally into India and have been found to circulate fake Indian currencies and involved in violence and other crimes in the Indian side of the border.

The BSF, which guards the Bangladesh border, regularly conducts raids on the cattle smugglers, confiscates the cattle and detains the offenders. The BSF had come under severe criticism for opening fire on the Bangladeshi cattle smugglers who had illegally infiltrated into India. The matter was taken up by Bangladesh in 2011 during talks with India, and since then the powers of the BSF had been curbed. This had led to further increase in the cattle trade and attacks on the BSF personnel by the Bangladeshi cattle smugglers.

Patrol
Between 2001 and July 2005, 225,863 cattle heads were recovered by the BSF in the South Bengal sector. In 2012, till August, 79,018 cattle heads valued at Rs 33 crores were seized by the BSF.

Violence in the border areas
According to the BSF, most of the violences along the Indo-Bangladesh border was related to cattle smuggling.